Arizona women's basketball loses 62-60 at Washington; 4th loss this month by single bucket

Another game, another last-second shot.

If it seems like this year's Arizona Wildcats have been here before, they have.

In four of the last five games, the ball just hasn’t bounced the Wildcats’ way at the end. It was no different against Washington, who slid past Arizona, 62-60, in Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle on Friday night.

Arizona has now lost three straight games by a total of just eight points; those four one-possession losses, all in January, are by nine total points.

Arizona is now 10-8, 2-4 in the Pac-12.

With the game tied at 60, Arizona guard Kailyn Gilbert’s jumper was blocked by Washington's Dalaya Daniels. With a tad more than seven seconds left in the game, Washington was able to break UA’s press and get the ball to a wide-open Lauren Schwartz, who scored on a layup with 2.3 seconds left.

“With the last play, we had three fouls to give, and our intention was to foul so we gave them a full-court layup,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said. “We need to learn from that. There was a soft back screen that happened and that was a bad mistake. We gave up a layup, and we had fouls to give. That was a tough one. … That was a perfect situation to be in defensively.”

In traffic, Jada Williams let a 3-pointer fly and missed to end the game.

Gilbert took over the game in the second half, scoring all of her 18 points to lead the rally; Williams scored seven of her nine points in the final frame.

Esmery Martinez had her hand in just about everything, finishing with 13 points and 12 rebounds — four of them offensive. Martinez has three double-doubles this season and 11 in her career as a Wildcat.

Arizona played from behind the entire game. In the first half, it was a combination of the shots not falling for the Wildcats and giving up 18 points (3 of 4 from long distance) to Elle Ladine. The UA defense tightened up at times — Helena Pueyo had three steals in the first half — but the Wildcats were not protecting the 3-point line as they gave up 10 3s. Two of those key 3s were by Hannah Stines down the stretch — one just under the shot clock with just under 90 seconds left to pull ahead.

Key moment

Arizona went on a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter to take its first lead of the game on a drive by Williams to make it 54-52 with just under four minutes left. Skylar Jones grabbed a steal and scored with 1:52 left to give UA another lead at 58-57; Stines answered with a 3 to give UW the lead, 60-58. Williams tied it up on another drive. UA gave up the layup that capped the scoring.

She said it

Barnes on the loss: “I always say it doesn't come down to one possession. We gave up multiple offensive rebounds that led to 3s. If you look at all that, we boxed out better. We still didn’t box out (but) we boxed out 50% better. If you look at the way we started the game, the lack of intensity and giving up 21 points the first quarter, you're not going to win again in the Pac-12 giving up 21 points in the first quarter.”

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Stuffing the stat sheet

Pueyo: 2 points (1 for 6), 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block and 3 steals.

Breya Cunningham: 2 blocks, 2 points, 2 rebounds.

Williams: 1 rebound, 2 steals, 4 turnovers.

Gilbert: 3 assists, 7 rebounds, 6 of 6 from the free-throw line.

Isis Beh: 6 rebounds.

The other side

Ladine (22 points) and Stines (16 points) combined for 7 of the Huskies' 10 3-pointers. Daniels had three blocks, including one on Gilbert’s drive with nine seconds left.

By the numbers

3: Pueyo’s three steals moved her into fifth place in UA’s career steals list with 257. She surpassed Barnes, who had 256 in her Arizona playing career.

4: UA out-rebounded UW by four, 38-34. Ten of these were offensive rebounds.

11: Arizona gave up 11 second-chance points.

Photos: Washington hands Arizona 4th last-minute loss, this time 62-60, Pac-12 women's basketball